Sangakkara vs Chanderpaul
 

After the Sangakkara Pietersen debacle I thought would be interesting to compare Sanga to Chanderpaul, who is probably underrated more than Sanga.

This is a comparison which I feel is realistic and 50/50. Sanga does possess the better average, but Shiv started at a time when bowling attacks were better and pitches were harder to bat on, and he's had to suffer in a fragile batting lineup. He's performed against nearly all opposition in nearly all conditions except in Australia and Pakistan, but even there he has some impressive knocks against some all time great bowlers (Mcgrath, Warne, Wasim and Waqar).

Chanderpaul's abilility to play the ball as late as possible and use of his wrists mean that he is arguably a better player of spin than Sangakkara who is also wristy but does not seem to have as much give as Chanderpaul. I would also give Chanderpaul the edge in terms of playing swing as well, he is great at committing to the shot at the last second. Where I would give Sanga the advantage is playing the bouncing ball, Chanderpaul definitely doesn't play it as well as Sanga either defensively or offensively.

Utimately I can't choose between these 2; Sanga bats in the top 3 and is the slightly heavier runscorer, but I can't think of a batsman in world cricket that has bailed their side out of trouble more than Chanderpaul.

I would have to go with Chanderpaul - his character is too good to leave out.

Like Many West Indians he came into test cricket too early so even tho he averaging 51.5 right now without those years of being unprepared and having a terrible stands he would have a higher avg. I looked at his record from 1999 - to 2013 - 112 test matches - good sample and his home avg is 60 and away is 51. 55 matches played overseas and home since then... Sanga has played about 20 more matches at home and avg 60 at but only 47 away. Shiv has done better against teams like Eng, and Aus which sanga played poorly against.

The only place where Shiv played poorly was in Australia - avg only 23 but avg 54 against Aus in general.

Sanga's average playing in England, SA, WI, India is dreadful

Overall Shiv is the better player in all conditions.

Based on stats, it has to be shiv. I didn't know he had done so well.

Overall though, I'd probably go with Sangakkara here.

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Well it's difficult to pick between a number 3 and a number 5, but if I could presume that besides the two, the teams would be dead equal (which would obviously be hypothetical), I'd easily pick Chanderpaul.

Surprised how highly Chanders is rated in this comparrison.

love me some chanders

Im surprised myself at all the love for Shiv. Even among West Indians I'd probably rate Shiv in the 3rd tier. In this comparison Id give the edge to Sanga

This is definitely closer than the other battle, I went for sanga, but there's a longevity issue here, Chanders did debut 6 years before Kumar and has kept up a decent performance through much of that time.

Sangakkara is a far better player. Don't get me wrong I do like Chanderpaul, but lets be honest, Sangakkara can take a game away from the opposition and oozes class where as Chanderpaul at times looks like he's batting for his average most of the time, where he refuses to protect the tail in most of his innings, not to mention the fact that he's stayed batting at 5 when his team needed him to move up the order.

Chanderpaul as sustained a place high up in the batting rankings for yonks but for overall domination Sanga.

This.

Sangakara has never done this overseas.

Doesn't Chanderpaul have one of the fastest test centuries or something?

I dunno, given that he (this goes for Dravid and Kallis as well) has played some pretty useful ODI hands, I think he could possibly dominate when the team requires it. Also, sometimes "dominating" means completely grinding a team into the dust by not giving up your wicket.

Thats a bit harsh on Steyn isnt it :p